No comments about Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China, First Century A.D..

2 comments about Niels Henrik Abel and his Times.

1. Abel's short life will leave an indellible mark in all mathematicians ( professional and amateur )'s heart.
   This superb biography will remind us again and pay an respect
   to this genius. One will be hard to resist sadness about
   reading this book, but fact is fact, history cannot be changed.
   Let us pay a tribute to this superb genius again by reading
   this biography.



2. This is an excellent book about the norwegian mathematical genius Niels Henrik Abel. This book is also very painfull to read, since it is about a man who dies at only 26 years of age, just before he is to reach to glory. It's a tragedy. But none the less what he accomplish in his life is just tremendous. This is a real book. And it will not leave you unaffected.

5 comments about Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project's Indispensable Man.

1. As biographer Robert Norris himself concedes, there have been many accounts of the Manhattan Project since World War II, several biographies of Leslie Groves, and even Paul Newman's memorable depiction of Groves in the film "Fat Man and Little Boy." Norris hoped to achieve the academically definitive biography, and no one can accuse him of failing at that. He is thorough. In fact, there is unintended humor in the "racing" title: as late as page 214 the search for real estate for Hanford and Oak Ridge is just getting underway. Groves's bomb has a long fuse.

   Leslie R. Groves entered West Point on the eve of World War I. When the United States entered the war, the Academy's curriculum was compressed into a two year matriculation in the belief that many new officers would be needed quickly on the European front. As timing would have it, neither Groves nor many of his fellow cadets saw action. What resulted, however, was a glut of peacetime officers, an undesirable situation for ambitious career officers like Groves. Eventually Groves's accomplishments would outrun his rank, a major political liability. In the end, however, Groves himself was his own worst enemy. Intelligent and self-motivated, Groves became an accomplished engineer at the Academy, though it would seem that as a cadet he acquired the skills without the polish. As an officer in the Corps of Engineers he was brusque and dogged, except with those who could advance his career. Superiors tolerated his rudeness and obesity because he could kick behinds and deliver the goods. In peacetime he might have been shuffled out; but as the Nazi shadow extended closer to home, a man of Groves's productivity would be annually disciplined for his interpersonal shortcomings and "punished" with greater responsibilities. It was thus that Groves became a major force in the construction of the Pentagon, and ultimately a secret weapons project based in the New York District of the Army Corps of Engineers, the so-called Manhattan Project.

   To the uninformed, Groves's contribution to the production of the atomic bomb was as scoutmaster for a collection of scientific mad monk geniuses in the desert of New Mexico. In fact, Norris leaves the impression that Groves was more of an absentee landlord at Los Alamos. The real action was going on elsewhere, primarily in massive industrial complexes at Hanford, Washington, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In some respects the building of these two industrial facilities was as impressive as the making of the bomb. That Groves was able to build not one but two mammoth atomic factories in roughly eighteen months is staggering.

   As Norris tells the story, Groves enjoyed a decent relationship with Robert Oppenheimer and most of the scientists working for him. He did not totally understand the intricacies of atomic physics; in truth, the entire project was a foray into the unknown. Where he excelled was in translating theoretical problems into practical management components which he executed against incredible odds: shortages of rare substances and wartime civilian labor, secrecy and security, political and military infighting, and concern over the German nuclear program, to cite a few. When his scientists were divided over opposing theories and techniques, Groves's favorite stratagem was simply to test both possibilities in laboratory situations and select the one that worked.

   Which raises the question of costs and accountability. The funding of this massive secret project is probably a good subject for a separate work. Suffice to say that Groves drew his funding from an extraordinarily large but innocuously named account, and that funding was one problem he did not have to face, at least until after the war. Conveniently, there was in fact no one-certainly not his [many] senior officers-who could question the wisdom of Groves's expenditures and management techniques. He answered, nominally at least, to a civilian board appointed by Roosevelt, which included James Conant, President of Harvard. But from this narrative the board's primary relationship with Groves appeared to be running interference.

   After Japan's surrender, Groves exercised a proprietorship over the newly confirmed nuclear technology, and he would parcel it out sparingly and reluctantly. He advocated an American hegemony of nuclear weaponry-no international control of atomic bombs, no sharing of technology with allies-and even within America he embargoed information to most government agencies, including the White House. Groves protected the stockpile, and since the weapons were stored as component parts, Groves could obfuscate the true strategic strength of the American arsenal as political needs dictated. Norris contends that Groves forged much of this nation's current nuclear philosophy during and immediately after the Manhattan Project.

   New technology notwithstanding, the old politics would eventually derail Groves. In 1948, during his annual fitness review, Groves was told by Dwight Eisenhower to his face that his maverick days were over and that he would not be appointed chief of engineers. Eisenhower, who regarded Groves as a loose cannon, made it clear that too many officers had been rubbed the wrong way by his arrogance. No fool, Groves submitted his resignation and spent several years with Remington Rand in the early years of computer development.

   Norris depicts Groves's role in the atomic espionage trials of the 1950's in a benign light, [Gregg Herken's new work depicts the General's involvement in a darker light] and I suspect that the author's closeness to his subject made him somewhat less critical of Groves's tactics and style. Overall, this is an extremely valuable work for several reasons. "Racing for the Bomb" is a commentary on the pros and cons of national crisis management, the dilemma of giving someone enough power to get the job done without creating a dictator. There is also a message here about contemporary nuclear proliferation. Have India, Pakistan, Iraq, and North Korea mastered their own Manhattan Projects, or is nuclear proliferation simply a matter of espionage and horse-trading? One can almost hear Groves saying, "I told you so."




2. This biography fills a significant gap in the historical record: behind the incredible scientific and engineering triumph of the Manhattan Project, there was a master administrator. Leslie Groves is that administrator, the take-charge guy who knew how to inspire, find competent people to whom he delegated tasks, cajole and bully his way into the historical achievement of the first working atomic bomb. In this bio, you get to know who he was, how he operated, and what he did. There is no doubt he was a great and talented, if somewhat unsung, man.

   Nonetheless, Groves' life and methods are not exactly something that would inspire a lay reader about the epoch. There are far better books for that, such as Rhodes' Making of the Atomic Bomb, which is the most readable and best reported and researched of the whole shelf of books on the subject in my opinion. No, this is a book of value principally for specialists in scientific and military history and for atom-bomb buffs. There was info I needed in it and could only find there, so it was most useful for a scholarly purpose. But it was not a fun read about a rich time.

   Afterall, when contrasted to great politicians or scientists or adventurers, there is a reason why very, very few bureaucrats find a narrative niche: they are simply not as interesting or as comprehensible. Norris even says as much, when he admits there were not many layers to Grove: he was a competent and arrogant man, who when given extraordinary authority during the war was capable of achieving extraordinary things. At the end of the war, he refused to change along with the army and instead retired to a corporate position and as a curmugeon who corrected in excruciating detail the innumerable accounts that kept appearing.

   I do not mean to diminish Norris' achievement here, only to put it into perspective for prospective readers. The prose is clear, if a bit lackluster. But this is very good scholarship and a useful addition.

   Recommended for specialists only.




3. The book is definitive, scholarly, yet dramatic and exciting. Indispensable for understanding how the atomic bomb came about. A necessary counterpoise to the prevailing scientist-based story of the development. Additionally Norris's description (meticulously documented by a vast quantity of letters and interviews) of Grove's childhood and professional years before WWII recreates a lost era when society's leaders and doers were on a higher plane than they are today.



4. This has to be the definitive biography of General Groves. The research is meticulous. The book reads more like a suspense story than a biography

   I really enjoyed the book.




5. For those interested in the development of the atomic bomb, this book fills a gap, telling who made the American program succeeded where other nations failed or followed later. General Groves drove the project relentlessly to timely success with immense resources, personal determination, project management skills, and effective delegation. Without Groves, the world would have changed more slowly. A good read, if a bit slow on Groves' life before the bomb.

1 comments about George Washington Carver.

1. One of the most often overlooked great men of the Twentieth Century was the humble Christian and brilliant scientist, George Washington Carver. Most adults and children are more familiar with later African-American leaders, and know little about this extraordinary individual who contributed so much to making life better for all humankind.
   
   William J. Federer's book is an excellent and interesting introduction to and overview of Mr. Carver's life. Homeschoolers will find it especially good for use as a supplement to junior high and high school American history studies. Bible-believing Christians will be inspired by learning how Mr. Carver's deep faith impelled him to remarkable achievements, despite the greatest challenges and obstacles. With the recent emphasis upon self-reliance by contemporary African-American leaders such as Bill Cosby and Barack Obama, African-American youth will find a sterling example of these applauded qualities and virtues in Mr. Carver's life.
   
   Do not be put off by the book's less than attractive cover, or its amateurish production. The content is excellent.

No comments about Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting the Ancient Maya.

No comments about Alfred Nobel: A Biography.

No comments about Wernher Von Braun: Crusader for Space : An Illustrated Memoir.

1 comments about Stephen Smale: The Mathematician Who Broke the Dimension Barrier.

1. This book not only provides a useful description of some of the theory at a level technical enough to be satisfying, but also gives a fascinating view into the life and thinking of a Field's Medal winner (1966). Who would have guessed that the future Field's Medal Winner received a C in Calculus II and Physics and that he had a B- average Jr. year at the University of Michigan? And perhaps particularly heartening to those who have been through the graduate school experience, that he was less favored than Munkries and received an ultimatum from the chairman to improve (and that in graduate school, according to Raul Bott, Smale sat in the back and it wasn't clear he was always paying attention). But, of course, Smale more than redeems himself resulting in a storied career and a reputation that surpasses the boundaries of his specialties. This is a marvelous book.

1 comments about The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science.

1. The story moved nicely and was very interesting as well as informative. I would highly recommend this book to any teacher of math or science.

1 comments about Argonaut: The Submarine Legacy of Simon Lake (West Texas a&M University Series, No. 4).

1. For the past 80 years or so, Simon Lake has stood in the shadow cast by John P Holland, the man now generally accorded the title 'Father of the Submarine'. But in the early 1900s, Connecticut yankee Lake seemed at least as likely to earn the soubriquet. Lake was Holland's equal as an inventor, and his submarines were the only ones constructed in the US which were as good as the Holland boats. Moreover, Lake was easily the better businessman and for a long time led the Electric Boat Company (which acquired Holland's patents) in export sales. Lake boats were supplied to Russia (the Lake Co. going to great lengths to smuggle them past US customs during the Russo-Japanese war) and Austria-Hungary, and - thanks to the anti-monopolist stance of the American government - they were also purchased by the US Navy for a few years before World War I. Lake's boats were technically as successful as the Holland types which eventually eclipsed them, though built on rather different principals. Their inventor retained faith in the idea of submerging vertically, rather than diving, and persisted in fitting his craft with wheels to allow them to run along the bottom. Unlike the Irish-American John Holland, whose designs were inspired by the idea of attacking British warships, Lake also believed in submarines for commercial purposes such as wrecking and pearl-diving, and his boats were fitted with diving chambers which also made them very suitable for mine-laying and mine-clearing operations. The story of how Lake built his first experimental boats of wood and, eventually, a large shipbuilding concern in Bridgport is a fascinating one, and Poluhowich tells is competently enough, if not in any great detail. But the book is marred by the lack of anything approaching enough original material. Although the author became acquainted with Lake's son and includes some new anecdotal information from this source, there is a disappointing dearth of worthwhile material from the US archives, much less anything from Austria or Russia. With Lake's somewhat mendacious autobiography, and his book on the development of the submarine, still fairly readily available through online second-hand book services, Argonaut is not the major contribution to the literature that it could have been. Solid, but a missed opportunity nonetheless.